PowerBook G4 12" Power

I have a 12" Aluminum PowerBook G4 (full specs below description of my problem) ...

I bought it in early/mid 2005 ... the battery was part of a recall about a year after I bought it. There was nothing wrong with my battery but I figured I would get a new one. Free new battery, right? I have had battery issues with the G4 power ever since.

The first replacement battery would only hold a charge for 60 minutes. Within less than a year that charge hold dropped to 30-45 minutes. I took my laptop to an Apple Store where the manager - feeling a bit sorry for me ... it was Christmas - took my bum replacement battery and gave me a new one from the store.

At first the battery ran like a champ, but less than a couple months passed before it started failing. The charge would only hold for 60 minutes, then 43, then 30, and now it's 8 minutes. EIGHT minutes! I realize that batteries can lose the capacity to hold a charge over time, but this is a bit ridiculous.

I have done everything suggested to test and maintain the battery. Calibration (which is now impossible, seeing as the charge holds for 8 minutes), PMU reset, et al. Until a recent PMU reset the laptop wouldn't even work unless it was plugged in to the AC adapter.

Through some searching - to see if there was anything else I could do in order to get the battery back to life, I found something rather interesting. According tothis article I am not using the correct power adapter that I should be using with my laptop. The article shows a 65W adapter (model 661-3346) as the proper adapter. My adapter is rated 45W ... What's more is that the adapter I am using is the adapter that came with my laptop!

According to the model specifications of my PowerBook ( http://support.apple.com/kb/SP48 ), it shows that thet 45W adapter is the right adapter, and that the 65W adapter shipped with the 15" and 17" models.

Battery and power

• 50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 5 hours of battery life (12-inch models) ⁽⁷⁾
• 50-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (15-inch models) ⁽⁷⁾
• 58-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (17-inch model) ⁽⁷⁾
• 45W power adapter with cable management system (12-inch models)
• 65W power adapter with cable management system (15-inch and 17-inch models)
• Power adapter port

What gives? Anybody have two cents to share here? why does the article on power adapters say I should have a 65W power supply, and the model specs of the computer say 45W? I am beginning to think that the 45W adapter has heavily contributed to the rapid battery failure in my 12" G4 PowerBook.